Held together by the grace of God, coffee and crazy glue

Long Day Ahead

I’ve been up since 4:45, so I’m two hours into the day already. I’ve finished my Big Travel Mug of coffee (it’s half-caff; I’m easing up) and have moved on to my Big Cup of Water.

There’s a lot to do today, which is probably why I was up so early. Later this morning my Secular Franciscan fraternity will meet with our Regional Minister and others from the Regional Council for our Regional Visitation and Paperwork Jamboree. It’s not supposed to be a stressful time, but because it’s outside the norm of our regular meetings, it’s a stressful time. And I’m the fraternity minister, so any missing paperwork is on my head.

I’ll be getting there early to unlock the meeting room and put the coffee on–and turn the heat on, since Mother Nature has finally gotten the memo that it’s February.

I’ll also be getting there early because the back of my van is fully loaded with enough groceries to feed a spaghetti dinner to 105 people, which is what I’m doing tonight. It’s the annual Cub Scout Blue & Gold Dinner. Fortunately, it’s in the same building as my meeting this morning, so I can unload the van once and be done with it. When the meeting is over, I’ll put on my apron, change out of my “confident shoes” and put on my sneakers, and start making spaghetti sauce. A lot of spaghetti sauce.

Yesterday I rolled and baked 225 meatballs. That’s a lot of meatballs.

When the meeting is over and I have closed up the meeting room, I will appreciate the quiet in the building. I’ll be the only one there for a few hours. While I open cans of crushed tomatoes and stir in the garlic and oregano, I’ll have time to decompress. Never underestimate the value of cooking as an aid to decompression. (I get to be Martha and Mary all at the same time–yay for multitasking!) I made sure to load up some good playlists so I’ll have music, and since there will be no one else in the building, I can sing as loudly as I want. Or I can just enjoy the quiet, which will come to a sudden end when the Cub Scouts show up.

There’s a long day ahead, but I’ve got the tools to get through it: coffee, an entire bag of fun-size Milky Ways, “confident shoes,” an apron, a Sharpie, my favorite music, and prayer. A lot of prayer.

A Blast from the Past

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